Small packages, big difference

To find out how you can help or send a donation to We Care…We Share, Support our Troops, contact Yvonne Hayes at 704-482-3665 or email at yfhayes@bellsouth.net.

SHELBY — There’s a group of people Yvonne Hayes feels like a mother toward.

Most live overseas.

They dress in patterned uniforms.

She keeps in touch with them via written or typed letters. Most letters she receives back say "thank you."

“I can’t bring them home, but I can bring home to them,” she said. “You develop a motherly instinct toward them.”

Most of her “children” are members of the U.S. Marine Crops.

Hayes created “We Care…We Share, Support our Troops” in 2010. The organization’s focus reminds armed service members they aren’t forgotten back home. Hayes sends care packages to Marines and members of other branches of the U.S. military.

“You ask someone how they support the troops, and they’ll have a sticker that says ‘yes,’” she said. “My belief is if you care about someone, you share whatever you have.”

Hayes said she’s sent about 1,200 pounds of food and hygiene products to troops overseas this year.

So far, care packages have supported more than 300 service members.

Packages display support

Take a quick glance into Hayes’ kitchen and you'll notice there’s nowhere to place a dinner plate some days.

Sometimes, she sends seasonal knick-knacks for upcoming holidays. Hayes showed The Star a picture of Marines wearing Halloween masks from last year as part of a "thank you" letter to her.

It’s her way of getting service members’ minds off the battlefield.

Hayes remembers a time when all she saw on television was airplanes carrying coffins draped with flags. Inside were the bodies of young service members who died in combat.

“I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing,” she said. “They’re always in training to defend our country.”

It can cost about $80 to mail the stout care packages. Friends and organizations, such as the Marine Crops League Foothills Detachment 1164, donate to help offset costs.

Donations aren’t the only factor that keeps Hayes going. It’s the stack of ‘thank you’ letters from service units she keeps tucked away. It’s the visit she received from U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Benjamin Cobb earlier this year. Hayes sent Cobb and his squadron a care package in 2010, large enough for himself and a dozen fellow Marines. Cobb was stationed in Afghanistan at the time.

“I was ridiculously excited about it. It’s one thing to get a huge box in the mail in Afghanistan but from someone you don’t know, it’s awesome,” he said.

When Cobb’s tour ended, he was stationed at Camp Lejuene. He planned a trip to the western part of North Carolina. He visited Hayes for the first time.

“I was happy to see her, to put a face to a name and thank her in person. It means the world to me that she has our backs so much,” Cobb said.

Hayes said the care packages she sends may not be much, but they make a difference. She said its her way of doing more than saying “I support our troops.”